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35th Congress, ) HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. ( Report C. C. 
1st Session. J j No. 150. 



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.^S. CoixaXT i^^ CjLcu^. 



REBEKAH HEALD. 



Febrcary 1, 1858. — Committed to a Committee of the Whole House, and ordered to be 

printed. 



The Court of Claims submitted the following 

o 

REPORT. 

To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 

States in Congress assembled: 

The Court of Claims respectfully presents the following documents 
as the report in the case of 

REBEKAH HEALD vs. THE UNITED STATES. 

1. The petition of the claimant. 

2. Opinion of the Court adverse to the claim. 

By order of the Court of Claims. 

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the 

r -, seal of said Court at Washington, this first day of February, 
|_L.s.J ^ ^ -^g5g_ 

SAM'L H. HUNTINGTON, ^ 

Chief Clerk Court of Claims. 



IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF CLAIMS. 

To the honorable the United States Court of Claims : 

The petition of Rebekah Heald, the widow of Major Nathan Heald, 
late of St. Charles county, in the State of Missouri, most respect- 
fully represents : 

That on the 15th day of August, 1812, her husband, then Ca])tain 
Heald, an officer in the United States army, commanded Fort Dear- 
born, in or near Chicago ; that she, your petitioner, resided there with 
him, and that they were possessed of considerable personal property, 
all of which was lost at the destruction of said Fort Dearborn, on the 
said 15th day of August, 1812, by the Indians, and by whom they 
were taken risoners. 

That an inventory or schedule of the property thus lost is herewith 
annexed, together with its supposed valuation. 

Your petitioner further states, that after the death of her husband, 



2 KEBEKAH HEALD. 

she, in the month of Decemher, 1847^ petitioned Congress for pay- 
ment and remuneration tor the property so destroyed by the Indians 
and h.)st to them. 

That her petition was forwarded to the Hon. Thos. H. Benton, 
then a senator in Congress from Missouri, and was accompanied by the 
depositions of two ladies of Chicago, who were well acquainted with 
all the facts in relation to their capture and the destruction of their 
property ; that by some strange fatality the petition and testimony 
were lost or mislaid, and were never presented to Congress ; that both 
of the ladies at Chicago are now dead; that their testimony, duly taken, 
was full and complete ; that her said petition was furthermore accom- 
panied by the additional testimony of Colonel John O'Fallon and 
Colonel John Ruland, of St. Louis, Missouri. 

Your petitioner prays that her claim may be examined and adjudi- 
cated upon in such manner as may be conformable to the rules and 
regulations of your Court; and, if necessary, that a commission may 
be granted to take the depositions of witnesses in St. Louis, Missouri, 
to substantiate iier claim. 

The major part of the property lost was her own, and over which 
her husband exercised no control ; but perhaps, when legally con- 
sidered, the title was in him. If such be the construction, then I 
appeal in the name of his legal representatives for pay. 

Relies upon 5th article of Amendments to the Constitution, 3 U. S. 
S. 261 ; lb. 397 ; lb. 465, chap. 124; and general principles of pub- 
lic law. 

REBEKAH HEALD. 

United States, To Behekah Heald, Dr. 

For loss of property (personal) taken and destroyed by Indians, on 
the 15th day of August, 1812, at Fort Dearborn, on the destruction 
of the fort, viz : 

One negro woman, Cicily, and her child, valued at $1,000 00 

One side-saddle, bridle, and martingale 35 00 

Three horses 500 00 

Two cows and calves 50 00 

Household furniture 200 00 

Silver spoons and tumblers 75 00 

Table furniture complete 75 00 

Clothing 600 00 

■ Jewelry, ear-rings, breastpins, rings, &c 50 00 

2,585 00 

State of Missouri, ) 
County of St. Charles, \ 

I, Rebekah Heald, do swear that the facts stated by me in the peti- 
tion, so far as they are of my own personal knowledge, are true, and 
80 far as they depend upon the iniormation of others, I believe to be 



EEBEKAH IIEALD. Z 

true ; and that the schedule annexed is a true account of the property- 
lost, and the estimated value, say two thousand five hundred and 
eighty-five dollars. 

REBEKAH HEALD. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me, the undersigned justice, this 9th 
October, 1855. 

JOSIAH B. COSBY, 

Justice of the Peace, 

State of Missouri, ) 
County of St. Charles. ) 

I, John K. McDearmon, clerk of the county court of St. Charles 
county, certify that Josiah B. Cosby, esq., before whom the foregoing 
affidavit of Rebekah Heald was made, and whose genuine signature is 
thereunto attached, is now, and was at the time of so doing, an acting 
justice of the peace, duly commissioned, sworn, and qualified within 
and for said county ; and that all his official acts, as such, are entitled 
to full faith and credit. 

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal of said 
[seal.] court, at office, this 11th day of October, 1855. 

JOHN K. McDEARMON, Clerk. 



To the honorable the Court of Claims of the United States: 

Rebekah Heald, a petitioner to the Court of Claims, begs leave to 
file this supplementary petition, to make certain amendments which 
she is advised are necessary to her original petition. 

Your petitioner founds her claim on the implied contract which 
exists between the government and its citizens to afford them protec- 
tion against all hostile depredations, and the repeated recognition of 
their liability in cases similar to this of your petitioner. 

No one is interested in the said claim but the petitioner, and the 
legal representatives of her late husband, in M^hose behalf she petitions, 
who are Darius Heald, (son of the petitioner and her late husband, 
Nathan Heald,) and Nathan Heald McCausland and Alexander A. 
McCausland, (grandsons of the petitioner and her late husband, Nathan 
Heald.) 

Your petitioner desires that her petition may be so amended as to 
include the above statements, and prays leave to amend the schedule 
thereunto annexed, by adding thereto a watch and a gun that were 
lost at the same time, and in the same manner set forth in the peti- 
tion, and that were of the value of one hundred and fifty dollars. 

REBEKAH HEALD. 

State or Missouri, ) 
County of St. Charles, \^^' 

This day j>ersonally appeared before me, Josiah B. Cosby, a justice 
of the peace duly authorized by law to administer ojtf^^lis witliiu and 



4 REBEKAII UEALD, 

for tlie coimty aforesaid, Kebekali Heald, whose name is subscribed to 

the foregoing petition, and who being by me duly sworn, upon her 

oath says, that said petition and the facts therein set forth are true. 

Sworn to and subscribed before me this 4th day of January, 1856. 

JOSIAH B. COSBY, J. P. 

State op Missouri, ) 
County of St. Charles. \ 

I, John K. McDearmon, clerk of the county court of said county, 
certify that Josiah B. Cosby, esq., whose proper signature appears to 
the above affidavit of Rebekah Heald, is now, and was at the time of 
so doing, an acting justice of the peace within and for said county, 
duly commissioned and qualified, and that_, as such, his acts are en- 
titled to full faith and credit. 

In testimony whereof, I have hereto set my hand and seal of said 
r -| court, at office, in the city of St. Charles, this 'Tth day of Janu- 
L^- ^--1 ary, 1856. 

JOHN K. McDEARMON, Clerh. 



in the court of claims. 
Eebecca Heald vs. The United States, 

Judge Blackford delivered the opinion of the Court. 

The petition states the following facts : 

The petitioner is the widow of Captain Heald_, deceased. 

On the 15th of August, 1812, her husband was a captain in the 
army of the United States, and then resided with the petitioner, his 
wife, at Chicago, 

At that time Captain Heald was commander of Fort Dearborn, in 
or near Chicago, where he and the petitioner then had personal 
property of the value of $2,585. 

The Indians, on the said 15th of August, 1812, destroyed Fort 
Dearborn, when all said personal property was lost, and Captain 
Heald and the petitioner, his wife, were taken prisoners. The greater 
part of the personal property so lost belonged to the petitioner. 

The object of the petitioner is to recover the value of said personal 
property either for herself or for the legal representatives of her said 
husband. 

Af the time of said destruction of Fort Dearborn, the United States 
and the Indians were at war ; and the claim, therefore, is for the 
value of private personal property destroyed by an enemy in time of 
war. 

We think that there is no difficulty in this case. The government 
is not bound to pay for the property in question. No doctrine is 
better settled than that the government of an invaded country is not 
liable to pay for private property destroyed by the enemy. This 
subject was before us in 1856^ in the case of Cassius M. Clay, and the 



REBEKAII IIEALD. 5 

decision was against his claim. In the opinion in that case, the 
authority of Vattel is relied on. That author, speaking of the 
damages caused to individuals by acts of the enemy, says : " All the 
subjects are exposed to such damages ; and woe to him on whom they 
fall ! The members of a society may well encounter such risk of 
property, since they encounter a similar risk of life itself. Were the 
State strictly to indemnify all those whose property is injured in this 
manner, the public finances would soon be exhausted ; and every 
individual in the State would be obliged to contribute his share in due 
proportion — a thing utterly impracticable. Besides, these indemnifi- 
cations would be liable to a thousand abuses, and there would be no 
end of the particulars. It is therefore to be presumed that no such 
thing was ever intended by those who united to form a society." — 
(Vattel's Law of Nations, book 3, chap. 15, sec. 232.) 

Our opinion is, that the petition shows no cause of action. 



146 


















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